Determining Points of Interest in a Content Item

ABSTRACT

Aspects discussed herein relate to systems, apparatuses, and methods to identify, in near real-time, points of interest of viewers of a content item concurrently being transmitted in a linear stream to the viewers. A point of interest may refer to a segment of the content item that caused a surge in user reactions. During a subsequent transmission of the content item, identified points of interests may be displayed to the viewer. The viewer may select the point of interest in the content item to begin playback of the point of interest in the content item. Further, a playlist of points of interest in one or more content items may be generated for playback of the points of interest to a viewer.

BACKGROUND

During video playback of a content item such as a movie or a televisionshow, viewers may only select entry points defined by either amanufacturer or a provider of the content item. An entry point may be apoint in playback of the content item in which the viewer may enter as aresult of selecting the entry point. In some instances, the entry pointscorrespond to different chapters or scenes of the content item. Inadditional or alternative instances, the chapter entry points may occurat a specified time interval (e.g., every 10 seconds, every 30 second,etc.). However, in each of these cases, the entry points are set up bythe manufacturer or provider of the content item without input from theviewers of the content item.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basicunderstanding of some aspects of the disclosure. The summary is not anextensive overview of the disclosure. It is neither intended to identifykey or critical elements of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope ofthe disclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts ofthe disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the descriptionbelow.

Aspects discussed herein relate to systems, apparatuses, and methods toidentify, in near real-time, points of interest of viewers of a contentitem during transmission of the content item to the viewers in a linearstream. A point of interest may also be referred to herein as a hotspotand may refer to a segment (e.g., a portion) of the content item thatcaused the point of interest. A point of interest may be identified inresponse to determining a surge in user interest in the segment of thecontent item. The user interest may be in the form of social mediamessages relating to the content item posted by viewers to socialnetworking service providers during transmission of the linear stream tothe viewers. Once a point of interest is identified, at least a starttime of the segment relative to playback of the content item may beidentified and associated with the point of interest. The start time mayserve as a bookmark to begin playback of the segment at some later pointin time. During subsequent playback of the content item, a playbacktimeline (e.g., linear progress bar) may be displayed to the viewer withicons representing the bookmarks. The user may select the iconassociated with a point of interest to begin playback of the segmentassociated with the point of interest. As a result, the user may jump tovarious points of interest in the content item for view, which may bereflective of the most interesting parts of the content item (e.g., afight scene in a reality television show). During playback of a segmentcorresponding to a point of interest, one or more social media messagesrelated to the segment may be displayed to the viewer thereby enhancingthe viewer experience. In some instances, these social media messagesmay be displayed overlaid on one or more frames of the segment.

Various features described herein may provide a playlist of points ofinterest (e.g., a highlight reel for a television series). In someinstances, the points of interest in one or more content items may beidentified. In such instances, a start time and an end time of thesegment corresponding with a point of interest may also be identifiedand bookmarked so that the start time and end time of the segment areknown and may be used in generating the playlist of points of interest.Each segment associated with a point of interest may be characterizedvia one or more attributes describing a scene in the segment (e.g., adance scene) or other characteristic (e.g., quoted dialogue, a topicidentifier, etc.). A user may request a playlist of points of interestand the request may include one or more attributes and, optionally, theidentifier of a content item, a set of content items (e.g., a televisionseries), etc. As an example, the request may be for points of interestassociated with dance scenes in a particular television series. Inresponse, dance scenes that were identified as a point of interest inthe television series may be viewed in a playlist.

Various features described herein may provide users with anauto-generated table of contents of points of interest. Each point ofinterest may be associated with a unique identifier, correspondingsegment information (e.g., start time, end time), correspondingattribute information, etc. This information may be stored in adatabase, which may then be searched to dynamically and automaticallygenerate a table of points of interest for view by a particular viewer.A request from the particular viewer may be used to identify searchterms.

These features in the summary above are merely illustrative of thefeatures described in greater detail below, and are not intended torecite the only novel features or critical features in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Some features herein are illustrated by way of example, and not by wayof limitation, in the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, likenumerals reference similar elements between the drawings.

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative information access and distributionnetwork in accordance with one or more aspects as described herein.

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative computing device that may be used toimplement any of the features and devices described herein.

FIG. 3 depicts an example flow chart for identifying hotspots, inaccordance with one or more aspects as described herein.

FIG. 4 depicts an example flow chart for utilizing hotspots duringplayback of a content item, in accordance with one or more aspects asdescribed herein.

FIG. 5 depicts an example user interface for playback of a content item,in accordance with one or more aspects as described herein.

FIG. 6 depicts an example flow chart for utilizing hotspots duringplayback of a content item, in accordance with one or more aspects asdescribed herein.

FIG. 7 depicts a user interface for playback of a playlist, inaccordance with one or more aspects described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description of various illustrative embodiments,reference is made to the accompanying drawings identified above, whichform a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration variousembodiments in which aspects of the disclosure may be practiced. Otherembodiments may be utilized and structural and functional modificationsmay be made, without departing from the scope discussed herein. Variousaspects are capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or beingcarried out in various different ways. In addition, the phraseology andterminology used herein are for the purpose of description and shouldnot be regarded as limiting. Rather, the phrases and terms used hereinare to be given their broadest interpretation and meaning. The use of“including” and “comprising” and variations thereof is meant toencompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well asadditional items and equivalents thereof.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network 100 on which many ofthe various features described herein may be implemented. Thecommunication network 100 may be any type of information distributionnetwork, such as satellite, telephone, cellular, wireless, etc. Oneexample may be an optical fiber network, a coaxial cable network, or ahybrid fiber/coax distribution network. The communication network 100may use a series of interconnected communication links 101 (e.g.,coaxial cables, optical fibers, wireless, etc.) to connect multiplepremises 102 (e.g., businesses, homes, consumer dwellings, trainstations, airports, etc.) to a local office 103 (e.g., a headend). Thelocal office 103 may transmit downstream information signals onto thecommunication links 101, and each of the premises 102 may have areceiver used to receive and process those signals.

One of the communication links 101 may originate from the local office103, and it may be split a number of times to distribute the signal tothe various premises 102 in the vicinity (which may be many miles) ofthe local office 103. The communication links 101 may include componentsnot illustrated, such as splitters, filters, amplifiers, etc. to helpconvey the signal clearly. Portions of the communication links 101 mayalso be implemented with fiber-optic cable, while other portions may beimplemented with coaxial cable, other lines, or wireless communicationpaths.

The local office 103 may include an interface 104, such as a terminationsystem (TS). More specifically, the interface 104 may be a cable modemtermination system (CMTS), which may be a computing device configured tomanage communications between devices on the network of thecommunication links 101 and backend devices such as servers 105-107 (tobe discussed further below). The interface 104 may be as specified in astandard, such as the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification(DOCSIS) standard, published by Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.(a.k.a. CableLabs), or it may be a similar or modified device instead.The interface 104 may be configured to place data on one or moredownstream frequencies to be received by modems at the various premises102, and to receive upstream communications from those modems on one ormore upstream frequencies.

The local office 103 may also include one or more network interfaces108, which can permit the local office 103 to communicate with variousother external networks 109. The external networks 109 may include acombination of wired and/or wireless communication links. For instance,the external network 109 may include, for example, networks of Internetdevices, telephone networks, cellular telephone networks, fiber opticnetworks, local wireless networks (e.g., WiMAX), satellite networks, andany other desired network, and the network interface 108 may include thecorresponding circuitry needed to communicate on the external networks109, and to other devices on the network such as a cellular telephonenetwork. As an example, the external network 109 may include a basestation 127, which may be a cellular or satellite access point that maywirelessly communicate with a wireless device 116 such as smartphone orother cellular enabled-wireless device (e.g., tablets, laptops, etc.).

As noted above, the local office 103 may include a variety of servers105-107 that may be configured to perform various functions. Forexample, the local office 103 may include a push notification server105. The push notification server 105 may generate push notifications todeliver data and/or commands to the various premises 102 in the network(or more specifically, to the devices in the premises 102 that areconfigured to detect such notifications). The local office 103 may alsoinclude a content server 106. The content server 106 may be one or morecomputing devices that are configured to provide content to users attheir premises. This content may be, for example, video on demandmovies, television programs, songs, text listings, web pages, articles,news, etc. The content server 106 may include software to validate useridentities and entitlements, to locate and retrieve requested contentand to initiate delivery (e.g., streaming) of the content to therequesting user(s) and/or device(s).

The local office 103 may also include one or more application servers107. An application server 107 may be a computing device configured tooffer any desired service, and may run various languages and operatingsystems (e.g., servlets and JSP pages running on Tomcat/MySQL, OSX, BSD,Ubuntu, Redhat, HTML5, JavaScript, AJAX and COMET). For example, anapplication server may be responsible for collecting television programlistings information and generating a data download for electronicprogram guide listings. Another application server may be responsiblefor monitoring user viewing habits and collecting that information foruse in determining hotspots. Yet another application server may beresponsible for formatting and inserting advertisements in a videostream being transmitted to the premises 102. Although shown separately,one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the push server105, the content server 106, and the application server 107 may becombined. Further, here the push server 105, the content server 106, andthe application server 107 are shown generally, and it will beunderstood that they may each contain memory storing computer executableinstructions to cause a processor to perform steps described hereinand/or memory for storing data.

An example premise 102 a, such as a home, may include an interface 120.The interface 120 can include any communication circuitry needed toallow a device to communicate on one or more of the links 101 with otherdevices in the network. For example, the interface 120 may include amodem 110, which may include transmitters and receivers used tocommunicate on the communication links 101 and with the local office103. The modem 110 may be, for example, a coaxial cable modem (forcoaxial cable lines of the communication links 101), a fiber interfacenode (for fiber optic lines of the communication links 101),twisted-pair telephone modem, cellular telephone transceiver, satellitetransceiver, local wi-fi router or access point, or any other desiredmodem device. Also, although only one modem is shown in FIG. 1, aplurality of modems operating in parallel may be implemented within theinterface 120. Further, the interface 120 may include a gatewayinterface device 111. The modem 110 may be connected to, or be a partof, the gateway interface device 111. The gateway interface device 111may be a computing device that communicates with the modem(s) 110 toallow one or more other devices in the premises 102 a, to communicatewith the local office 103 and other devices beyond the local office 103.The gateway 111 may be a set-top box (STB), digital video recorder(DVR), a digital transport adapter (DTA), computer server, or any otherdesired computing device. The gateway 111 may also include (not shown)local network interfaces to provide communication signals to requestingentities/devices in the premises 102 a, such as display devices 112(e.g., televisions), additional STBs or DVRs 113, personal computers114, laptop computers 115, wireless devices 116 (e.g., wireless routers,wireless laptops, notebooks, tablets and netbooks, cordless phones(e.g., Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephone—DECT phones), mobile phones,mobile televisions, personal digital assistants (PDA), etc.), landlinephones 117 (e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol—VoIP phones), and anyother desired devices. Examples of the local network interfaces includeMultimedia Over Coax Alliance (MoCA) interfaces, Ethernet interfaces,universal serial bus (USB) interfaces, wireless interfaces (e.g., IEEE802.11, IEEE 802.15), analog twisted pair interfaces, Bluetoothinterfaces, and others.

The communication network 100 may include one or more social networkingservice providers 125 that may communicate with the local office 103,various web servers (not shown), laptop computer 115, and wirelessdevice 116 (e.g., a smartphone). The social networking service providers125 may provide communication services (e.g., social networkingservices) to their users (e.g., members).

Users (e.g., members) of a communication network (e.g., an online socialnetwork) may communicate with one another using the communicationnetwork. In some instances, the users may post messages on a messageboard for view by other users. In some instances, there may be manymultiple message boards (e.g., webpage walls) with each one beingspecific to a different topic. In some instances, the messages may besubmitted by viewers currently watching a content item being provided bythe local office 103 in a linear multicast stream. In such instances,the messages may relate to aspects, ideas, moments, or actions thatoccurred in the content item (e.g., a fight in a reality televisionshow).

A topic of one or more messages may be identified and/or otherwisedetermined by the social networking service providers 125 by determiningthe topic of the message board, inspecting the text of the message,and/or identifying a topic identifier in the message.

As an example, a message board may be a wall or a social webpage that isassociated with a particular topic. As another example, the text of themessage may be parsed and analyzed to determine a likely topic of themessage. In some instances, the social networking service provider 125may use topic identification algorithms to identify the topic. Inadditional or alternative instances, the social networking serviceprovider 125 may store a list of topics and word phrases determined tobe indicative of one of the topics. Using the parsed message, the socialnetworking service provider 125 may identify the sequence orco-occurrence of words in the message to identify the topic. As yetanother example, the message itself may include an indication of thetopic. For instances, a particular symbol, object, or label may indicatethat a particular field of the message (e.g., the field following thesymbol) is the topic of the message. In one example, the symbol may be ahashtag, which may indicate that the one or more words following thehashtag are the topic of the message. The topics may be predefined byanother user of the social networking service provider, the local office103, and/or the social networking service providers 125. A user maycreate a new topic by entering the symbol and new combination ofcharacters to define the topic. In many cases as will be illustratedbelow, message created by viewers while they view a content item mayrelate to the content item. That is, the presently viewed content itemmay be the topic of the message. In one or more arrangements, themessage may include video and/or pictures in addition (or in alternativeto) text.

The social networking service providers 125 may permit many differenttypes of ways to post social media messages to users in general or to aparticular group of users of a social networking service provider. As anexample, the message may be in the form of a reply or comment on aposting by another user. As another example, the message may be in theform of a favorite indication or a “like” indication indicating theperson likes a particular message. In some instances, the author of thefavorite or liked message may be notified that another user has “liked”the author's message (e.g., via a like or favorite count). Thenotification may include a social media identifier of the user who“liked” the message. As yet another example, the message may share apreviously posted message with users e.g., by re-posting the previouslyposted message. Each of the above message types may generally bereferred to as a message and may be considered a posting to a socialmedia wall for view by the author's friends, followers, and/or the anyuser of the social networking service provider 125.

Further, the social networking service providers 125 may perform othersocial network functions including managing user account information,friend lists, messaging services, picture services, friend discoveryservices, etc. The social networking service providers 125 may providemessage search functionality. For instance, a user may submit a searchfor a topic and, in response, receive each message associated with thattopic. In one example, the search may be initiated by clicking on thetopic or a symbol (e.g., a hashtag) indicative of the topic.

Users may interact and/or otherwise communicate with the socialnetworking service providers 125 via one or more user-exposed interfaceson various computing devices. As an example, a user may interact withthe social networking service providers 125 using a remote controldevice to manipulate a user interface displayed on the display devices112 and provided by the set top box 113. As another example, a user mayinteract with social networking service providers 125 using a web-basedinterface via the personal computer 114, laptop computer 115, thewireless device 116, etc. As yet another example, a user may interactwith the social networking service providers 125 using a softwareapplication (e.g., a mobile app) associated with the social networkingservice providers 125, which has been downloaded and installed on one ormore of the personal computer 114, laptop computer 115, the wirelessdevice 116, etc. In some instances, the messages may be relayed to thesocial networking service providers 125 by the local office 103. Inother instances, the messages may be sent to the social networkingservice providers 125 via base station 127 and external network 109without being sent through the local office 103.

The local office 103 may include a point-of-interest controller 122(e.g., a hotspot controller, an interest server, etc.). Although shownseparately, the point-of-interest controller 122 may be a servercombined with one or more of the push server 105, the content server106, and the application server 107. The point-of-interest controller122 may be a computing device responsible for coordinating the socialnetworking service provider's monitoring of social media messages,retrieving the monitored data, and using the monitored data to identifyhotspots in content items being provided in a linear multicast stream.For instance, the point-of-interest controller 122 may transmit, to theone or more social networking service providers 125, one or moreinstructions for monitoring messages relating to content items providedby the local office 103 to viewers in a linear multicast stream. In someinstances, the instructions may include a program ID of the contentitem, a topic ID specific to the social networking service provider(e.g., a hashtag followed by a particular topic), and/or otherinformation discussed herein.

The social networking service provider 125 may then monitor and/orotherwise track messages in accordance with the instructions. As viewersview a content item provided in a linear multicast stream, they mayexpress their thoughts and ideas relating to the content item inmessages. The point-of-interest controller 122 may track when eachmessage relating to the content item (e.g., the topic) is posted and howmany messages relating to the content item are posted over a particulartime period.

The social networking service provider 125 may be instructed by thepoint-of-interest controller 122 to periodically (e.g., every 30seconds, every 2 minutes, etc.) or continuously provide a report to thepoint-of-interest controller 122. The report may include monitored datafor one or more topics specified in the instructions provided to thesocial networking service providers 125 from the point-of-interestcontroller 122. The report may include an indication of how manymessages relating to a specified topic have been posted and/or otherwisesubmitted by users over a most recent time period (e.g., over the last30 seconds, 2 minutes, etc.). In some instances, the report may includemultiple indications of how many messages relating to a specified topichave been posted and/or otherwise submitted by users over a multipleoverlapping recent time periods. As an example, for a specified topic,the report may indicate that 300 messages relating to the specifiedtopic have been received over the last 30 seconds, 400 messages relatingto the specified topic have been received in the last minute, 550messages relating to the specified topics have been received in the lastminute and 30 seconds, etc.

For instance, the point-of-interest controller 122 may use the report toidentify hotspots based on spikes in social media traffic relating tothe content item and may create an entry point to the hotspot in thecontent item. Using these entry points defined by social media, viewerscan jump to hotspots in the content item that caused spikes in socialmedia traffic, which may be reflective of the most interesting parts ofthe content item (e.g., a fight scene in a reality television show).Further, during playback of the hotspot, the point-of-interestcontroller 122 may cause one or more messages related to the segment andsubmitted by the users to be displayed to the viewer thereby enhancingthe viewer experience. In some instances, these messages may bedisplayed overlaid on one or more frames of the content item segment.Additionally, the point-of-interest controller 122 may generate ahighlight reel of linear or non-linear content using hotspots relatingto the same topic (e.g., dance scenes in a television show, televisionseries, etc.).

In one or more arrangements, the point-of-interest controller 122 mayprovide users with an auto-generated table of contents of points ofinterest. As discussed above, the point-of-interest controller 122 mayidentify hotspots in a content item based on social media activity. Eachof these hotspots may reflect a different point of interest in one ormore content items by the viewing audience. The point-of-interestcontroller 122 may associate each hotspot with one or more attributes(e.g., program ID, genre ID, television series, etc.). One attribute mayinclude a type of action performed in the hotspot (e.g., a fight scene,a dance scene, etc.). Another attribute may include key phrases fromactors in that scene. Yet another attribute may be a specific socialmedia identifier associated with the hotspot (e.g., a hashtag). Stillyet another attribute may include key phrases commonly found in themessages relating to the hotspot. Hotspot identifiers and correspondingattribute information may be stored in a database, which may then besearched to dynamically and automatically generate a table of hotspots(e.g., points of interest) for a particular viewer upon request. Therequest may include one or more attributes desired by the viewer.

While the content item in many instances may be a video program (e.g., amovie, television show, sports event, etc.), in other instances thecontent item may be game, image, audio file, text file, news story, orother media.

In some embodiments, users may enter their reactions to the content itemvia a remote control device (e.g., a remote control provided by thecontent provider for use with a STB or DVR, a television remote). Thetelevision, STB, DVR, and/or other device receiving signals from theremote control device may transmit the user's reactions (e.g.,selection) upstream to the point-of-interest controller 122 viacommunication links 101. Alternatively, the remote control device maytransmit the user's reactions to the point-of-interest controller 122over another network such as a cellular communication network or otherwide area network. The remote control device may include one or morededicated or programmable buttons to indicate a positive reaction (e.g.,a thumbs up), negative reaction (e.g., thumbs down), a rating betweene.g., and 10, or another reaction. Additionally or alternatively, thecontent provider may cause a user interface to be displayedsimultaneously with the content item and may include one or moreuser-selectable options representative of the user's reaction, and maybe considered a message as used herein. In some instances, the userinterface may be overlaid on the content item. In other instances, thedisplay area of the content item may be reduced and shifted to make roomfor the user interface (e.g., a side bar). The user-selectable optionsmay include numerous emoji icons (e.g., a happy face, a sad face, acrying face, an angry face, a startled face, etc.), like, dislike,rating, laughter (e.g., laugh out loud (LOL)) or any other option thatcould represent the user's reaction to the content item. Auser-selectable option may permit the user to enter textual messages bydisplaying the alphabet, number pad and symbols (e.g., punctuationsymbols). Additionally, remote control devices with microphonefunctionality may record the users' reactions. For instance, the usermay select a record button to record the user's audible (e.g., verbal)reaction such as laughter, verbal messages, and the like. Thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may identify the user's verbal messagesusing a natural language determination algorithm. Additionally, a cameramay be used to record facial expressions of the user such as smiling orfrowning. The point-of-interest controller 122 may identify the user'sfacial expression using one or more facial expression algorithms. Eachof the user's selection may be associated with a timestamp of when theselection was received either by the STB/DVR 113.

Further, users may enter their reactions to the content items via amobile device (e.g., a smartphone, a tablet, computer or the like). Forinstance, an application or a website in a web browser displayed on themobile device may act as a second screen for the content provider bydisplaying a graphical user interface in which the user can enter his orher reaction to the content item, which may be considered a message asused herein. The user interface may include the user-selectable optionsdiscussed above in connection with the remote control device. As anexample, the user interface may include a like content option, a dislikecontent option, emoji icons, etc. As another example, the user may entertextual messages using a virtual keyboard displayed on the mobiledevice's touch screen or a physical keyboard. As yet another example,the user may enter an audible input via the mobile device's microphone.As yet another example, the user may convey emotions by taking a photoor video of themselves via the mobile device's camera. The user's inputmay be associated with a timestamp by the point-of-interest controller122.

The point-of-interest controller 122 may analyze the number of messagesreceived and the number of messages received directly by thepoint-of-interest controller 122 via the remote control or other mobiledevice over multiple sequential time periods to identify one or moredramatic increases (e.g., a surge or spike) in messages relating to thecontent item. As will be described in greater detail below, these spikesmay be used to determine points of interest (e.g., hotspots) in thecontent item.

FIG. 2 illustrates general hardware elements that can be used toimplement any of the various computing devices discussed herein. Thecomputing device 200 (e.g., the point-of-interest controller 122, etc.)may include one or more processors 201, which may execute instructionsof a computer program to perform any of the features described herein.The instructions may be stored in any type of computer-readable mediumor memory, to configure the operation of the processor 201. For example,instructions may be stored in a read-only memory (ROM) 202, randomaccess memory (RAM) 203, removable media 204, such as a Universal SerialBus (USB) drive, compact disk (CD) or digital versatile disk (DVD),floppy disk drive, or any other desired storage medium. Instructions mayalso be stored in an attached (or internal) hard drive 205. Thecomputing device 200 may include one or more output devices, such as adisplay 206 (e.g., an external television), and may include one or moreoutput device controllers 207, such as a video processor. There may alsobe one or more user input devices 208, such as a remote control,keyboard, mouse, touch screen, microphone, camera, etc. The computingdevice 200 may also include one or more network interfaces, such as anetwork input/output (I/0) circuit 209 (e.g., a network card) tocommunicate with an external network 210. The network input/outputcircuit 209 may be a wired interface, wireless interface, or acombination of the two. In some embodiments, the network input/outputcircuit 209 may include a modem (e.g., a cable modem), and the externalnetwork 210 may include the communication links 101 discussed above, theexternal network 109, an in-home network, a provider's wireless,coaxial, fiber, or hybrid fiber/coaxial distribution system (e.g., aDOCSIS network), or any other desired network. Additionally, the devicemay include a location-detecting device, such as a global positioningsystem (GPS) microprocessor 211, which can be configured to receive andprocess global positioning signals and determine, with possibleassistance from an external server and antenna, a geographic position ofthe device.

The FIG. 2 example is a hardware configuration, although the illustratedcomponents may be implemented as software as well. Modifications may bemade to add, remove, combine, divide, etc. components of the computingdevice 200 as desired. Additionally, the components illustrated may beimplemented using basic computing devices and components, and the samecomponents (e.g., the processor 201, the ROM storage 202, the display206, etc.) may be used to implement any of the other computing devicesand components described herein. For example, the various componentsherein may be implemented using computing devices having components suchas a processor executing computer-executable instructions stored on acomputer-readable medium, as illustrated in FIG. 2. Some or all of theentities described herein may be software based, and may co-exist in acommon physical platform (e.g., a requesting entity can be a separatesoftware process and program from a dependent entity, both of which maybe executed as software on a common computing device).

One or more aspects of the disclosure may be embodied in acomputer-usable data and/or computer-executable instructions, such as inone or more program modules, executed by one or more computers or otherdevices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects,components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks orimplement particular abstract data types when executed by a processor ina computer or other data processing device. The computer executableinstructions may be stored on one or more computer readable media suchas a hard disk, optical disk, removable storage media, solid statememory, RAM, etc. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, thefunctionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed asdesired in various embodiments. In addition, the functionality may beembodied in whole or in part in firmware or hardware equivalents such asintegrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and thelike. Particular data structures may be used to more effectivelyimplement one or more aspects of the disclosure, and such datastructures are contemplated within the scope of computer executableinstructions and computer-usable data described herein.

FIG. 3 depicts an example flow chart for identifying hotspots inaccordance with one or more aspects as described herein. The method ofFIG. 3 and/or one or more steps thereof may be performed by a computingdevice (e.g., the point-of-interest controller 122). The methodillustrated in FIG. 3 and/or one or more steps thereof may be partiallyor fully embodied, for example, in computer-executable instructions thatare stored in a computer-readable medium, such as a non-transitorycomputer-readable memory. In some instances, one or more of the steps ofFIG. 3 may be performed in a different order and/or combined. In someinstances, one or more of the steps of FIG. 3 may be omitted and/orotherwise not performed.

The method of FIG. 3 may be performed to identify segments of contentitems in which the audience viewing the contents items has identified asa point of interest. For instance, as a content item is transmitted in alinear multicast stream, the point-of-interest controller 122 mayidentify audience reactions from a variety of sources (e.g., socialmedia sources, remote device sources, user device sources, or any othersource of user reactions) to determine hotspots or points of interest ina particular segment of the transmitted content item. As an example, alive television program of a music competition may be transmitted in thelinear multicast stream. As the viewers watch the program, they mayenter their reactions by submitting messages to one or more of thesocial networking service providers 125. Additionally, viewers may alsoenter their reactions directly through a remote control interfacing withtheir set-top box (e.g., by selecting a button indicating that the userliked the content or a different button indicating that the userdisliked the content). Further, users may enter their reaction into apersonal device (e.g., a smartphone, tablet, computer, etc.) via anapplication or web-based interface configured to transmit the messagesto the social networking service provider 125, which may in turn providea report of the received messages to the point-of-interest controller122. The point-of-interest controller 122 may determine when a surge orspike in interest in the content item occurs and bookmark a particularsegment of the content item as a hotspot. During a subsequent view ofthe content item, the point-of-interest controller 122 may cause displayof one or more user-selectable bookmarks (e.g., hotspots), which may bein the form of a table of contents of hotspots. The viewer may select abookmark to jump to a hotspot in the content item for view. In someinstances, while viewing a hotspot in the content item, one or moremessages (e.g., user reactions) associated with the hotspot may bedisplayed overlaid on the content item, as will described in furtherdetail below.

As seen in FIG. 3, at step 305, a computing device (e.g., thepoint-of-interest controller 122) may transmit content items in a linearstream to one or more user devices (e.g., STBs, tablets, phones, etc.).A content item may be a video and/or audio program (e.g., movie,television show, sports game, live electronic game play, etc.). Thelinear stream may be in the form of a unicast stream (e.g., a videoon-demand (VOD) stream) or a multicast (e.g., broadcast) stream. Thecontent items may be live events (e.g., sports games, award shows, etc.)or prerecorded programs (e.g., a new episode in an ongoing televisionprogram series). In some instances, the content item may be the firsttime the content item is being provided to a general audience (e.g., thepublic, subscribers of the content provider, subscriber of the contentprovider who has a particular status or package). In other instances,the content item may have been previously available for view by thegeneral audience (e.g., a rerun of a television program). In some cases,multiple different content items may be transmitted in the linearstream. In some cases, the point-of-interest controller 122 may transmitmultiple different content items over multiple linear streams. In someinstance, multiple content items may be associated with one another(e.g., a television series).

In step 310, the point-of-interest controller 122 may, duringtransmission of a content item in a linear stream, monitor audiencereactions to the transmitted content item from a variety of sources(e.g., social media, TV or STB remote controls, smartphones, tablets,etc.). For example, users viewing the content item may wish to commentand/or otherwise rate a particular scene of the content item. The usermay submit messages to a social networking service provider 125, enter amessage into a TV or STB remote control, and/or enter a message into asecond screen interface provided via an application installed on amobile device such as a smartphone, tablet, or computer.

The point-of-interest controller 122 may periodically poll (e.g., send arequest to) the social networking service providers 125 for a reportcorresponding to the content item. In some embodiments, the request mayidentify the content item being transmitted using a content itemidentifier, which the point-of-interest controller 122 may identifybased on a broadcast schedule or a VOD program identifier. The requestmay optionally include one or more social-network-specific identifiersto identify the content item in the social media messages. As anexample, the request may include a program ID for a particulartelevision show and a list of one or more hashtag topics relating to thecontent item. Further, in some instances, the request may also includeparsed, closed-captioning text of the content item. In response toreceiving the request, the social networking service provider 125 mayprovide a report of the received social media messages to thepoint-of-interest controller 122. In some cases, the social networkingservice providers 125 might not have the ability to filter out databased on metadata information about the content being watched. In suchcases, the point-of-interest controller 122 may request all activityfrom the social networking service providers 125. The point-of-interestcontroller 122 may then process and filter the data in order to findrelated postings.

While a “pull” relationship is described above, in one or more otherarrangements, a “push” relationship may be utilized. In such anarrangement, the point-of-interest controller 122 may transmit, to thesocial networking service providers 125, a list of content itemidentifiers, associated social-network-specific identifiers, associatedtime-intervals for capturing messages to monitor messages and transmit areport, closed-captioning data, and/or a transmission schedule (e.g., abroadcast schedule) to the social networking service providers 125 sothat the social networking service providers 125 may periodicallytransmit (e.g., push) the reports to the point-of-interest controller122 without it having to poll the social networking service providers125.

The social networking service providers 125 may, using the requestand/or one or more instructions sent to the social networking serviceproviders 125 from the point-of-interest controller 122 (discussedabove), identify messages related to a content item being transmitted ina linear multicast stream. In one or more arrangements, the instructionsmay specify to monitor for such messages only during transmission of thecontent item to viewers. As an example, the social networking serviceprovider 125 may begin monitoring for messages relating to a contentitem once the content item has begun being transmitted to viewers.Further, the social networking service providers 125 may end monitoringfor messages relating to the content item once transmission and/orplayback of the content item has concluded. In one or more additional oralternative arrangements, the instructions may specify to monitor suchsocial media message for a time period after transmission and/orplayback of the content item has concluded to capture messages relatingto the ending scenes of the content item.

The social networking service provider 125 may determine whether aposted message relates to the content item, which may reflect userinterest and reactions to one or more scenes in the content item. Eachof the examples provided below, may be performed by the socialnetworking service provider 125 by executing instructions received fromthe point-of-interest controller 122. In some examples, the socialnetworking service provider 125 may determine whether a message isassociated with a social-network-specific identifier listed in therequest or the instructions sent from the point-of-interest controller122. For instance, the social networking service provider 125 maydetermine whether the message itself includes an identifier or symbol ofits topic (e.g., a hashtag) and may compare this topic with a list oftopics that have been determined to relate to the content item. If amatch is found, the social networking service provider 125 may determinethat the message relates to the content item and may record a uniqueidentifier of the message, the content of the message, and a timestampof when the message was received. A timestamp may include a field foreach of year, month, day, hour, minute, second, sub-second (e.g., tenthsof seconds, hundredths of seconds, etc.), an indication of morning orafternoon, and/or time zone. As an example, a timestamp may be May 19,2015 at 10:30 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST). In some examples, thesocial networking service provider 125 may determine if the social mediamessage was posted to a message board and, if so, may determine thetopic of the message board and compare it with the list of topicsrelating to the content item. If a match is found, the social networkingservice provider 125 may determine that the social media message relatesto the content item and record the message's unique ID, content, andtimestamp. In some examples, the social networking service provider 125may parse the messages and determine whether any words or combinationsof words (e.g., a co-occurrence of words, a particular order of words,noun-phrases, etc.) match any words or combination of words (e.g., aco-occurrence of words, a particular order of words, noun-phrases, etc.)of the topics in the list. If so, the social networking service provider125 may determine that the message relates to the content item andrecord the message's unique ID, content, and timestamp. In someexamples, the social networking service provider 125 may parse theclosed-caption text of the content item if it has not already beenparsed. The social networking service provider 125 may determine theparsed message words or combinations of words (e.g., a co-occurrence ofwords, a particular order of words, noun-phrases, etc.) and determinewhether they match any words or combination of words (e.g., aco-occurrence of words, a particular order of words, noun-phrases, etc.)of the parsed, closed-caption text of the content item. If so, thesocial networking service provider 125 may determine that the messagerelates to the content item and record the message's unique ID, content,and timestamp. Otherwise, if the message's topic (or text) does notmatch the topic (or text) relating to the content item, the socialnetworking service provider 125 may determine that the social mediamessage does not relate to the content item and might not record suchinformation.

As discussed above, prior to the content item being transmitted in thelinear stream, instructions to monitor for messages relating to thecontent item may be provided to the social networking service provider125 by the point-of-interest controller 122. In some instances, theinstructions may also indicate to periodically send a report regardingthe messages relating to the content item that were posted during thetransmission of the content item in the linear stream. In some examples,the instructions may specify to send the report periodically once thelinear stream has begun broadcasting the content item in the linearstream. In such examples, the instructions may include either a programID of the content item and a program schedule for the linear stream or astart time of when the transmission of the content item will begin. Inother examples, the instructions may specify to monitor the messagesrelating to the content item and store monitored data for transmissionin a report to the point-of-interest controller 122.

The time period associated with periodic transmission of the report maybe a time period specified by the instructions or a time periodspecified by the request. In some instances, the instructions or therequest may specify the start time and end time of each time period.Since the social networking service provider 125 begins monitoring atthe start of transmission of the content item, the time period may havea start time prior to the current time. In some instances, theinstruction or request may specify that the time period begin at thetransmission of the last report. In some examples, the time period maybe the last 5 seconds, last 10 seconds, last minute, or any otherduration. The social networking service provider 125 may identify themessages relating to the content item and have a corresponding timestampwithin the particular time period, which may then be used to generatethe report. The report may include how many (e.g., the total number of)messages relating to the content item have been posted to the socialnetworking service provider 125 during the particular time period. Thereport may also include a copy of one or more of the messages, anindication of which content item they relate, and their correspondingtimestamps. Further, the report may include a report ID for use intracking the reports, an indication of the time period and/or thecontent item identifier. Additionally or alternatively, the report mayinclude, for each identified message, an indication of the reason thesocial networking service provider 125 identified the message as beingrelated to the content item. As an example, the report may indicate thata message was identified by the social networking service provider 125because it was associated with a social-network-specific identifier(e.g., a hashtag) related to the content item. As another example, thereport may indicate that a different message was identified by thesocial networking service provider 125 because it included a topic orphrase derived from the closed-caption data of the content item, and mayidentify the topic or phrase. In some embodiments, each report may bespecific to a content item and/or time period.

In step 315, the point-of-interest controller 122 may determine, in nearreal-time, whether a surge or spike in user reactions to the contentitem is occurring while the content item is being in the linear streamfor view by the users.

In some instances, a surge or spike may be determined by aggregating howmany messages relating to the content item were posted during the timeperiod received from one or more (e.g., all) of the social networkingservice providers 125 and compare the aggregated number of messages witha minimum threshold amount of messages. In determining the aggregatedtotal number of messages relating to the content item posted during atime period, the point-of-interest controller 122 may account for thedifferent time zones. Messages received from users on the east coastwill have a different timestamp than the messages received from users onthe west coast even though the messages may been received during thesame time period. As an example, a received message with a timestamp of9:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) and a different received messagewith a timestamp of 6:00 pm Pacific Standard Time (PST) were receivedduring the same time period. The point-of-interest controller 122 mayalign the messages to account for time zones. In the above example, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may align the messages by identifyingthe messages as occurring during the same time period. As anotherexample, the point-of-interest controller 122 may identify a particulartime period on the east coast as beginning at 9:00 pm and 5 seconds ESTand ending at 9:00 pm and 35 seconds EST. The point-of-interestcontroller 122 may determine that the same particular time period on thewest coast begins 6:00 pm and 5 seconds PST and ends at 6:00 pm and 35seconds PST. Thus, the point-of-interest controller 122 may determinethat messages received during these times fall within the same timeperiod for purposes of determining surges or spikes in messages relatingto the content item.

In one or more arrangements, the point-of-interest controller 122 maydetermine if messages from the different time zones (e.g., east coastand west coast) should even be related. The point-of-interest controller122 may determine that messages received at different times are actuallyrelated and should be combined. For instance, a program shown on theEast coast at 9:00 pm EST may be time delayed and displayed on the Westcoast at 9:00 pm PST. By combining guide information from the differentareas and other identifying meta information associated with themessages, it may be determined that the messages received 3 hours laterfrom the West coast should, in fact, be combined with the messagesreceived from the East coast 3 hours earlier. As an example, a surge of1000 messages with the hash tag #SecretAgent on the West coast for atime delayed program at 9:15 pm PST can get combined with a surge of1000 messages with the hash tag #SecretAgent on the East coast at 9:15pm EST despite the UTC times actually being 3 hours apart. In the end,there would be a bound 2000 messages to the 15 minute mark of theprogram that started at 9:00 pm relative to both time zones. Inaddition, a user may pre-record a program. By combining the temporalposition relative to the playback of the content item at a viewingdevice with the time that they are expressing messages, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may also determine the proper point inplayback of the content at which the messages should be bound.

As indicated above, the point-of-interest controller 122 may aggregatehow many messages were posted at multiple social networking serviceproviders 125. As an example, the point-of-interest controller 122 may,in one report, receive an indication of how many messages relating tothe content item were posted to a first social networking serviceprovider during the time period and, in another report, receive anindication of how many messages relating to the content item posted to asecond social networking service provider during the same time period.For instance, the point-of-interest controller 122 may receive anindication that 10,500 social messages related to the content item werereceived by the first social networking service provider during the last30 seconds, and an indication that 34,000 messages related to thecontent item were received by the second social networking serviceprovider during the last 30 seconds. Additionally, in one or morearrangements, the point-of-interest controller 122 may provide viewerswith the ability to submit messages relating to the content itemdirectly to the point-of-interest controller 122 via television remotecontrol devices, smartphones, tablets, etc. Such messages may include anidentifier of the content item. The point-of-interest controller 122 maydetermine that 40,100 messages were received by the point-of-interestcontroller 122 via the users' remote control devices (e.g., televisionremotes, smartphones, tablets, etc.) during the last 30 seconds. Thepoint-of-interest controller 122 aggregate, for a particular timeperiod, each of the received and/or determined number of messagesrelating to the content item. Following the above example, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may add 10,500, 34,000 and 40,100 todetermine that the aggregate total number of messages related to thecontent item during the last 30 seconds is 84,600.

As mentioned above, a surge or spike may be determined by aggregatingthe number of user reactions received from the variety of sources (e.g.,social networks, remote control devices, etc.) and comparing theaggregated number of user reactions with a minimum threshold amount ofmessages relating to the content item. The particular threshold may bepreset by an operator of the point-of-interest controller 122 or,alternatively, may be dynamically determined by the point-of-interestcontroller 122 based on a variety of factors.

One factor may be based on increases in the number of messages relatingto the content item over multiple time periods. In one or morearrangements, the point-of-interest controller 122 may set the minimumthreshold amount of messages relating to the content item based on howmany messages relating to the content item have been received during atime period immediately preceding the current time period (e.g., thetime period under analysis). For instance, the minimum threshold amountof messages relating to the content item may be a particular percentage(or amount) greater than the amount of messages relating to the contentitem that have been received during the time period immediatelypreceding the current time period, which may be reflective of a dramaticincrease in messages relating to the content item being posted. As anexample, the preset percentage 150% of the number of messages relatingto the content item posted during the previous time period. If thenumber of messages relating to the content item posted during theprevious time period is 10,000 messages, then the minimum thresholdamount of messages relating to the content item may be 15,000 messages.

Another factor may be based on the content item itself, the topic of thecontent item, the type of the content item, a theme (e.g., genre) of thecontent item. The point-of-interest controller 122 may use one or moreof the content item, its topic, type, and/or theme to determine thethreshold itself or a weighting for use in calculating the threshold. Asan example, the threshold may be specific to the content item. Forinstance, different content items may be associated with differentthresholds and the point-of-interest controller 122 may use a contentitem identifier to select the threshold in a threshold database. Acontent item entitled “abc” may have a threshold of 50,000 messages anda different content item entitled “xyz” may have a threshold of 60,000messages. In this manner, the point-of-interest controller 122 mayaccount for a predicted popularity of the content item (e.g., based onthe historical popularity of the content item) since a content item witha larger viewing audience would likely receive a greater number ofmessages. As another example, the content item's genre (e.g., horror,comedy, or the like) may be associated with a weighting used indetermining the threshold (e.g., a horror genre may be associated with aweighting of 0.5 and a comedy genre may be associated with a 2.0weighting). As yet another example, the content items genre or topic maybe used to identify the threshold (e.g., a horror genre may beassociated with a 50,000 minimum number of messages threshold and acomedy genre may be associated with a 70,000 minimum number of messagesthreshold). The type of the content item may include news program, livemusic event, live sport event, prerecorded program, movie, etc.

Another factor may include a subscription level of the viewing audience.For instance, the point-of-interest controller 122 may use thesubscription level of the viewing audience to determine a weighting foruse in calculating the threshold or identify the threshold itself. As anexample, a content item being transmitted on a subscription-basedchannel may be associated with a particular weighting or be used toidentify a threshold for the number of messages associated the contentitem on the subscription-based channel.

Using the one or more factors the point-of-interest controller 122 maydetermine the minimum threshold amount of messages relating to thecontent posted during the time period. If the point-of-interestcontroller 122 determines that the aggregated total amount of messagesrelating to the content item posted during the time period is less thanthe minimum threshold amount of messages, the point-of-interestcontroller 122 may determine that there has not been a surge in userreactions and process may return to step 310, where messages relating tothe content item may continue to be monitored for the next time period.

Otherwise, if the point-of-interest controller 122 determines that theaggregated total amount of messages related to the content item postedduring the time period is greater than or equal to the minimum thresholdamount of messages, the point-of-interest controller 122 may determinethat there has been a surge in user reactions to the content item andmay proceed to step 320. A surge may reflect a point of interest in thecontent item.

At step 320, the point-of-interest controller 122 may identify a pointin (or segment of) the content item corresponding with the surge in userreactions and identify this point in the content item as a hotspot ofuser interest. As used herein, this point in the content item may bealso referred to as a hotspot or a point of interest.

In one or more arrangements, the point-of-interest controller 122 mayidentify the hotspot using the time period corresponding with the surgein user reaction. For instance, the start time of the time period maycorrespond to a time at which the hotspot occurred. As a result, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may use a content item transmissionschedule of when the content is scheduled to be transmitted in thelinear stream and the start time of the time period to identify thestart time of the hotspot. For instance, if the transmission of thecontent item in the linear stream and/or playback of the content itemoccurred at 7:00 pm and the start time of the time period occurred at7:05 pm, then the point-of-interest controller 122 may determine thatthe start time of the hotspot is 5 minutes into playback of the contentitem (assuming there are no commercials). If there were one or morecommercials interspersed into playback of the content item during thefirst 5 minutes, the point-of-interest controller 122 may account forthe duration of these commercials when determining the start time of thehotspot, as will be discussed in further detail below.

In one or more additional or alternative arrangements, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may use the timestamps of the messagesto determine a start time of the hotspot. For instance, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 determine an average time for thetimestamps. Additionally, the point-of-interest controller 122 mayaccount for a delay in user's entering and submitting their messagesrelating to the content item to the social networking service providers125. The delay may be any amount of time correlating to an amount oftime a user would take in entering the user's message to a socialnetworking service provider after viewing a point of interest in thecontent item. For example, the delay may be 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1minute, 2 minutes, or the like. The delay may be specified by anoperator of the point-of-interest controller 122. As an example, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may determine that the average time atwhich the surge in the users' reactions to the content item began is9:35 and 30 seconds pm EST and may determine that the specified delay isone minute. In such an example, the point-of-interest controller 122 maydetermine that the time at which hotspot occurred is 9:34 and 30 secondspm EST. The point-of-interest controller 122 may then use this time tolook up the corresponding time in the content item in the content itemtransmission schedule to determine the start time of the hotspotrelative to playback of the content item.

As an example, the content item transmission schedule may indicate thatthe content item began being transmitted at 9:30 pm EST. Following theabove example, the point-of-interest controller 122 may determine thatthe hotspot occurred at 9:34 and 30 seconds pm EST. Using thisinformation, the point-of-interest controller 122 may determine that thestart time of the hotspot is 4 minutes and 30 seconds into playback ofthe content item (if there were no commercials interspersed within thefirst 4 minutes and 30 seconds of playback of the content item).However, if the point-of-interest controller 122 determines that therewere one or more commercials interspersed between 9:30 pm EST and 9:34and 30 seconds pm EST, then the point-of-interest controller 122 mayaccount for the commercials by moving the start time forward by anamount equal to the duration of the one or more commercials. Followingthe above example, the point-of-interest controller 122 may determinethat one commercial of 30 seconds occurred between 9:30 pm EST and 9:34and 30 seconds pm EST and, as a result, the start time of thesegment/hotspot is 4 minutes into playback of the content item.

In some embodiments, the content item may be transmitted to the viewersas a non-linear program (e.g., a video-on-demand (VOD) program, aweb-based video program provided by a mobile application, auser-specified recorded video program, etc.). In such embodiments, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may use the time at which the contentitem began being transmitted to the viewers and the time at which thesurge in user reactions occurred to identify the start time of thehotspot. As an example, if the time at which the content item beganbeing transmitted to the viewers is 10:30 am and the time at which thesurge in user reactions occurred is 10:45 am (e.g., the start time ofthe time period), then the point-of-interest controller 122 may identifythat the segment/hotspot began 15 minutes into playback of the contentitem. If any commercials were interspersed into the between 10:30 am and10:45 am, the point-of-interest controller 122 may account for thecommercials in a similar manner as discussed above. In some cases,rather than basing the determination of a hotspot's start time on thetime at which a VOD program began being transmitted, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may inspect metadata associated withtransmission of the VOD program to identify a time relative to playbackof the content item that the surge began and identify that time as thestart time of the hotspot. In such cases, any trick plays performed bythe user would be accounted for. For instance, if the user pauses theVOD program, the time relative to playback of the VOD program would alsopause. In some embodiments, a user may specify to record a video programfor later view, which may be stored in the user's local DVR and/or aremotely-located cloud DVR. As a result, the user may view the recordedvideo program subsequent to its scheduled transmission from a localoffice. The user's DVR may provide the point-of-interest controller 122with metadata including various timing aspects associated with playbackof the video program including, for example, a start time, an end time,times at which trick play requests (e.g., pause, unpause) wereperformed, and timing information for any messages the DVR receives fromthe viewer. The point-of-interest controller 122 may use the timinginformation associated with the recorded video program to determinesurges in interest in the video program.

Additionally or alternatively, the point-of-interest controller 122 mayidentify the start time of the hotspot based on the content of themessages. For instance, some user reactions may quote the dialogue inthe content item. The point-of-interest controller 122 may compare thequoted dialogue with closed captioning data of the content item toidentify the start time of the hotspot. As an example, the message mayinclude the quote “good luck.” The point-of-interest controller 122 mayfilter the closed caption text using the time period and compare thefiltered closed caption text with the quote “good luck.” If there is amatch, a time that is a preset timeframe prior to the time at which thedialogue is output may be the start time of the hotspot. The timeframemay be 0 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 1 minute, etc.

In some embodiments, the point-of-interest controller 122 might notdetermine an end time of the hotspot relative to playback of the contentitem. That is, the point-of-interest controller 122 may only determinethe start time of the hotspot relative to playback of the content item.The point-of-interest controller 122 may create a bookmark at the starttime of each hotspot so that during subsequent playback of the contentitem a viewer may select various bookmarks to begin playback of thehotspot. The content item may continue to play through the hotspot andthe rest of the content item until another input from the user isreceived (e.g., a selection of another bookmark, fast-forward, rewind,pause, stop, etc.), as will be discussed in further detail below.

In other embodiments, the point-of-interest controller 122 may determinean end time of the hotspot relative to playback of the content item,which it may determine in a variety of ways. In some instances, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may continue to receive reportsperiodically from the social networking service providers 125. Thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may aggregate the number of messagesrelating to the content item posted during a particular time period toone or more of the social networking service providers 125. Thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may compare the aggregated number withthe minimum threshold amount of messages relating to the content item.If the aggregated number is still above the minimum threshold amount,the point-of-interest controller 122 may determine that the hotspot hasnot yet ended and may identify the end time of the particular timeperiod as still part of the hotspot. If the aggregated number is lessthan the minimum threshold amount, the point-of-interest controller 122may determine that the hotspot has ended. In such instances, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may identify the start time (or,alternatively, the end time) of the particular time period ascorresponding to the end time of the hotspot. The point-of-interestcontroller 122 may then identify the end time of the hotspot relative toplayback of the content item using content item transmission schedule.In a similar as discussed above with respect to the start time of thehotspot, the point-of-interest controller 122 may account forcommercials when determining the end time of the hotspot.

Additionally or alternatively, the point-of-interest controller 122 mayidentify the start time and/or end time of the hotspot by identifying ascene displayed to the viewers during the time period and identifyingthe start time of the scene as the start time of the hotspot and the endtime of the scene as the end time of the hotspot. If multiple scenesoccurred during the time period, the start time of the first scene maybe used as the start time of the hotspot. In some cases, the hotspot maybe some default length (e.g., 10 seconds, 1 minute, etc.).

At step 325, the point-of-interest controller 122 may determine one ormore attributes of the hotspot and store information relating to thehotspot in a library of hotspots (e.g., a hotspot database) incommunication with the point-of-interest controller 122. The attributesmay be a description of the characteristics of one or more scenes thatoccurred during the hotspot. For instance, an attribute may be a fightscene, a dance scene, a prayer scene, an action scene, a crying scene, aromantic scene, etc. The point-of-interest controller 122 may determinethe attributes of the hotspot by analyzing the scenes of the contentitem occurring between the start time and end time of the hotspot. Insome instances, the analysis may be performed via an algorithm or anoperator viewing the one or more scenes of the hotspot. Additionally,the point-of-interest controller 122 may store other informationrelating to the hotspot such as the group ID (e.g., television series),content item ID, the start time of the hotspot, the end time of thehotspot, and the like.

At step 330, the point-of-interest controller 122 may determine if thelinear transmission of the content item has ended. If so, the processmay end. Otherwise, if the linear transmission of the content item hasnot ended, the process may return to step 310 where thepoint-of-interest controller 122 and the social networking serviceproviders 125 may continue to monitor user reactions to the content itemfor the next time period.

FIG. 4 depicts an example flow chart for utilizing hotspots duringplayback of a content item in accordance with one or more aspects asdescribed herein. The method of FIG. 4 and/or one or more steps thereofmay be performed by a computing device (e.g., the point-of-interestcontroller 122). The method illustrated in FIG. 4 and/or one or moresteps thereof may be partially or fully embodied, for example, incomputer-executable instructions that are stored in a computer-readablemedium, such as a non-transitory computer-readable memory. In someinstances, one or more of the steps of FIG. 4 may be performed in adifferent order and/or combined. In some instances, one or more of thesteps of FIG. 4 may be omitted and/or otherwise not performed.

The method of FIG. 4 may enable users to select various hotspotsassociated with a content item during playback of the content item. Forinstance, while the viewer is being presented the content item, a menumay be overlaid on the picture and/or a displayed as apicture-in-picture window. The menu may include a playback timeline ofthe content item with a bookmark at the start time of each of thehotspots, which may have determined in the manner discussed above inFIG. 3. The playback timeline may be a linear progress bar of playbackof the content item.

As seen in FIG. 4, at step 405, a computing device (e.g., thepoint-of-interest controller 122) may receive a request for a contentitem from one or more client/user/requesting devices (e.g., the STB/DVR113, the personal computer 114, the laptop computer 115, the wirelessdevices 116, or another computing device). The request may include achannel ID, a current time, a content ID, a VOD ID, and the like. Usingthis information, the point-of-interest controller 122 may identify thecontent item.

At step 410, the point-of-interest controller 122 may retrieve hotspotinformation for the content item from the hotspot database. Forinstance, the point-of-interest controller 122 may retrieve, for eachhotspot for the content item, its bookmark information (e.g., its starttime and end time relative to playback of the content item), itsattribute information (e.g., an indication whether its fight scene,dance scene, etc.), one or more messages corresponding to the hotspot,information about the content retrieved from local or third partysources (e.g., critic reviews, viewer reviews, plot summary, rating(e.g., PG, PG-13, R, or the like), listing of actors/singers, reviewratings (e.g., 4 out of 5 stars), etc.).

At step 415, the point-of-interest controller 122 may filter out one ormore hotspots for the content item. In some instances, the filter may bebased on specified attributes set in the request received in step 405.As an example, the request may specify to only show hotspots associatedwith fight scenes and, as a result, hotspots having attributesindicating they are a dance scene may be filtered out. In some cases,these specified attributes for filtering may be user selected via aninteractive interface with a list of selectable attributes of thehotspots. In other cases, these specified attributes may beautomatically selected on behalf of the viewer as determined by the userpresence and user preferences (e.g., the user may select attributes viaa preference interface). For example, the point-of-interest controller122 may, for one viewer having set preferences, automatically filter toinclude only those hotspots having attributes about clothing and may,for another viewer with no set preferences, enable selection of filtersto include only those hotspots having the attribute of dancing.

At step 420, the point-of-interest controller 122 may cause playback ofthe content item and cause display of hotspot information (e.g.,bookmarks) that were not filtered out in step 415. For instance, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may transmit the content item in linearstream to the requesting device of step 405 for playback to the user.During playback (e.g., display) of the content item at the requestingdevice, a menu may also be displayed overlaid on the content item or asa separate window on the display. The menu may include a playbacktimeline of the content item and may identify one or more bookmarks.FIG. 5 depicts an example user interface 500 displaying the content itemand the menu. As shown in FIG. 5, the user interface 500 may include anarea 502 for playback of the content item. The user interface 500 mayinclude a playback timeline 504 including one or more hotspots 506 a-c(506 generally). The playback timeline 504 may be a linear progress barfor playback of the content item beginning at time 0 (e.g., 0 minutes)and ending at the end time of the content item (e.g., 45 minutes), whichmay be equal to the duration of the content item. The playback timeline504 may also include an indication 508 of where in the playback timeline504 is currently being played back to the user. The user interface 500may also include other trick-play features such as pause, fast-forward,rewind, skip to next/previous chapter/scene, etc. An additional menufeature may be a share icon 510 that allows the user to enter their userreactions and post messages to the social networking service providers125, which may be used to update the hotspots and/or be one of themessages displayed during presentation of the hotspot as will bedescribed in further detail below. Further, the menu may permit users toannotate a hotspot or add it to a favorite's list of hotspots for thatviewer (e.g., via selection of a favorites icon), which may be sharedwith family and friends.

In some instances, the playback timeline 504 and other menu featuresmight not be persistently displayed during playback of the content item,rather they may be displayed in response to a user action (e.g.,selection of a button on a remote, touching the screen on a tablet,etc.). If no user selection is made, the playback timeline 504 and othermenu features may disappear so that only the content item is viewable(until another user action is received).

At step 425, the point-of-interest controller 122 may determine whetherit has received a request for a particular hotspot of the content item.While viewing playback of the content item, the user may select anyhotspot 506 in the playback timeline 504. In one example, if the userselects the hotspot 506 a (e.g., either by selecting a button on aremote control device, touching the hotspot 506 a on a touchscreen,etc.) the user's device may send a hotspot identifier upstream to thepoint-of-interest controller 122.

At step 430, in response to receiving a selection of a hotspot (e.g.,the hotspot 506 a), the point-of-interest controller 122 may causeplayback of the selected hotspot and cause display of the hotspotinformation (e.g., menu, attribute information, other data relating tothe hotspot). As a result, regardless of what point is currently beingplayed back (e.g., the beginning, an intermediate point, etc.), playbackmay jump (forwards or backwards) to the start time of the selectedhotspot. During playback of the hotspot, the point-of-interestcontroller 122 may cause display of one or more messages associated withthe hotspot. The messages may have been the created by users of thesocial networking service providers 125 and received in the reports fromthe social networking service providers 125. The messages may beoverlaid on top of the displayed content item. As shown in FIG. 5, themessage 512 is displayed and includes a topic identifier (e.g.,#SecretAgent), which may be the name of the content item in some cases,the content of the message (e.g., “Whoa! What a scene!) and a timestamprelative to playback of the content item in which message was received(e.g., at 12 minutes). In one or more arrangements, a message may bepresented for a preset time period (e.g., 10 seconds, 30 seconds, etc.)at which point it may be removed and, optionally another message may bedisplayed, and so on. The point-of-interest controller 122 may selectthe messages and their order of display based on a variety of factorssuch as popularity (e.g., messages with highest number of re-posts,replies, comments, likes, favorites, etc.), appropriateness of thecontent (e.g., text) of the messages (e.g., messages with profanitymight not be displayed), and the like. The popularity of the message maybe determined by either the social networking service providers 125 (andincluded in their reports) or by the point-of-interest controller 122.The process may then return to step 425.

At step 435, in response to not receiving a selection of a hotspot, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may continue to permit playback of thecurrent portion of the content item and display hotspot information.Following the above example, after the user selected the hotspot 506 aand the playback of the hotspot 506 a began, the user might not selectanother hotspot. As a result, playback of the content item may continuefrom the start of the hotspot until the end of the content item. In suchan instance, after playback of the end of the hotspot, a next sequentialportion of the content item will begin playback. The process may thenreturn to step 425. Steps 425-435 enable the user to select hotspot tojump (forwards or backwards) to various hotspots and enable playback ofthe content item either until another selection is made or until the endof the content item is reached.

In some embodiments, the point-of-interest controller 122 may beresponsible for tracking actions of users relating to playback of thecontent item and for adjusting the start time of the hotspot (e.g.,point of interest, segment, etc.) based on these actions. Thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may log actions of the users and atimestamp of when each action occurred. The point-of-interest controller122 may determine whether, soon after selecting a hotspot (e.g., withina preset time period such as 5 or 15 seconds), the user fast-forward orrewound the content item, which may reflective of when the sceneassociated with the hotspot began (e.g., when the fight in the fightscene started). In one instance, if most (e.g., at least some presetnumber or percentage of) viewers rewind the content item soon afterselecting a particular hotspot, the point-of-interest controller 122 maydetermine that the start time of the hotspot should actually occurearlier with respect to playback of the content item. Thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may record the time relative toplayback of the content item to which each user rewound and use theaverage of these times as the new start time of the hotspot. As anexample, the start time of the hotspot may be at time 12 minutes intoplayback of the content item. The point-of-interest controller 122 maydetermine that viewers on average rewind the content item afterselecting this hotspot to begin playback of the content item at 11minutes and 45 seconds into playback of the content item. Accordingly,the point-of-interest controller 122 may adjust the start time of thehotspot to 11 minutes and 45 seconds into playback of the content item.In another instance, if most (e.g., at least some preset number orpercentage of) viewers fast-forward the content item soon afterselecting a particular hotspot, the point-of-interest controller 122determine that the start time of the hotspot should actually occur laterwith respect to playback of the content item. The point-of-interestcontroller 122 may record the time relative to playback of the contentitem to which each user fast-forwarded and use the average of thesetimes as the new start time of the hotspot. As an example, the starttime of the hotspot may be at time 12 minutes into playback of thecontent item. The point-of-interest controller 122 may determine thatviewers on average fast-forward the content item, after selecting thishotspot to begin playback of the content item, to 12 minutes and 30seconds into playback of the content item. Accordingly, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may adjust the start time of thehotspot to 12 minutes and 30 seconds into playback of the content item.

In some embodiments, the point-of-interest controller 122 may beresponsible for tracking actions of users relating to playback of thecontent item and for adjusting the end time of the hotspot (e.g., pointof interest, segment, etc.) based on these actions. Thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may log actions of the users and atimestamp of when each action occurred. The point-of-interest controller122 may determine whether a user has a pattern of selecting anotherhotspot soon after viewing the end of the current hotspot. For instance,the point-of-interest controller 122 may compare the end time of thehotspot with the time relative to playback of the content item that theuser selected the next hotspot. If the selection of the next hotspot issoon after (e.g., within a preset time period such as 5 seconds or 10seconds of) the end time of the hotspot and this selection of a nexthotspot trend continues to occur for a preset number (e.g., at leasttwo) iterations, the point-of-interest controller 122 may determine thatthe user currently has a pattern of selecting another hotspot soon afterviewing the end of the current hotspot. In such cases, if at least apreset number of users having this pattern select a next hotspot priorto the end time of the current hotspot, the point-of-interest controller122 may set the end time of the current hotspot as the average time theuser selected the next hotspot relative to playback of the content item.As a result, the end time of the hotspot may be moved to an earliertime. If at least a preset number of users having this pattern select anext hotspot at least a preset duration after the end time of thecurrent hotspot, the point-of-interest controller 122 may set the endtime of the current hotspot as the average time the user selected thenext hotspot relative to playback of the content item. As a result, theend time of the hotspot may be moved to a later time.

FIG. 6 depicts an example flow chart for utilizing hotspots duringplayback of a content item in accordance with one or more aspects asdescribed herein. The method of FIG. 6 and/or one or more steps thereofmay be performed by a computing device (e.g., the point-of-interestcontroller 122). The method illustrated in FIG. 6 and/or one or moresteps thereof may be partially or fully embodied, for example, incomputer-executable instructions that are stored in a computer-readablemedium, such as a non-transitory computer-readable memory. In someinstances, one or more of the steps of FIG. 6 may be performed in adifferent order and/or combined. In some instances, one or more of thesteps of FIG. 6 may be omitted and/or otherwise not performed.

The method of FIG. 6 may be performed to enable users to view a dynamicplaylist (e.g., a highlight reel) of various hotspots associated withone or more content items. For example, a viewer may wish to view sceneshotspots for a particular reality television series or particulartelevision show within the television series. In some cases, the usermay also wish to view only the hotspots having a particular attribute(e.g., fight scenes, dance scenes, etc.). The user may send a requestfor the playlist and, in response, may receive the playlist havinghotspots with such attributes for view. As a result, the viewer mayquickly and efficiently view each scene having the requested attribute.The hotspots may have been determined in the manner discussed above inFIG. 3. In some instances, the methods of FIGS. 4 and 6 may be combined.

As seen in FIG. 6, at step 605, a computing device (e.g., thepoint-of-interest controller 122) may receive a request for a playlistof hotspots. In some examples, the point-of-interest controller 122 mayprovide an interactive program guide to client devices (e.g., theSTB/DVR 113, the personal computer 114, the laptop computer 115, thewireless devices 116, or another computing device). The guide mayinclude selectable icons to view hotspots of a television show, atelevision series, movie, or other content item. Upon selection of suchan icon, a request may be sent from the client device to thepoint-of-interest controller 122. The request may include an icon IDthat may be associated with a television show, a television series,movie, or other content item. In some examples, the request may includeone or more attributes with which each hotspot in the playlist shouldcontain.

At step 610, the point-of-interest controller 122 may retrieve hotspotinformation from the hotspot database. In some examples, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may obtain the hotspots for atelevisions series, a television show, a series of movies, and/or amovie.

At step 615, the point-of-interest controller 122 may filter theretrieved hotspots and generate a playlist of hotspots. If one or moreattributes were received in the request, the point-of-interestcontroller 122 may remove hotspots that do not have the requestedattributes. Additional, filters may include showing only those hotspotsassociated with the user's friends list, top 10 hotspots, etc. Using theremaining hotspots (e.g., the unfiltered hotspots), thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may generate a playlist of hotspots. Insome instances, the hotspots in the playlist may be in chronologicalorder. In other instances, the hotspots in the playlist may be innon-chronological order. For example, the hotspots may be ordered basedon their popularity as discussed above. The order of the tiles(discussed below) may represent the order of the hotspots.

At step 620, the point-of-interest controller 122 may transmit theplaylist to the requesting devices, cause playback of the first hotspotin the playlist at the requesting devices, and cause display of playlistinformation at the requesting devices. FIG. 7 depicts a user interface700 that includes a user interface 500 and a playlist 702. The playlist702 includes a playlist header (e.g., title) 704 and one or more tiles706 (e.g., thumbnails) representing different hotspots in the playlist.The playlist 702 may be scrollable so that a user can view all tiles 706and select a hotspot in the playlist by selecting a tile. In thisexample, tile 706 a and tile 706 b (generally 706) are currently shown.Each of the tiles 706 may include a representative image (e.g., picture)708 of the scene. As an example, the tile 706 a may include image 708 a,which may be an image of a car chase scene taken from its hotspot. Asanother example, the tile 706 b may include image 708 b, which may be animage of a fight scene taken from its hotspot. The tiles 706 may alsoinclude an information region 710 that includes information about theircorresponding hotspot. As an example, the tile 706 a may includeinformation region 710 a that lists the title, season number and episodenumber of the content item associated with the hotspot. Further, theinformation region 710 a may also include a characteristic, attribute orother information of the hotspot. In this instance, the car chase scenehotspot was the most re-watched hotspot. Similarly, the tile 706 b mayinclude information region 710 b that lists the title, season number andepisode number of the content item associated with the hotspot. Further,the information region 710 b may also include a characteristic,attribute or other information of the hotspot. In this instance, thefight scene hotspot was the most shared hotspot. As noted above, theuser interface 700 may also include user interface 500 discussed abovein FIG. 5 so that the viewer may also view playback of the hotspot andmay also include controls to play the content item associated with thathotspot. However, unlike above where after a hotspot ended, the rest ofthe content item would continue playback, here the next hotspot of theplaylist may begin as discussed below in step 630. As shown in FIG. 5,when a hotspot is being displayed, the playback timeline 504 of thehotspot's associated content item may be displayed and used to viewother parts of the content item. As an example, the user may selectother hotspots of the content item but which might not be on theplaylist of hotspots in a similar manner as discussed above in FIGS. 4and 5. The user may perform other trick play operations such as rewind,fast-forward, pause, etc.

At step 625, the point-of-interest controller 122 may determine whetherthe current hotspot being played back to the viewer has ended. If so,then, at step 630, the point-of-interest controller 122 may causeplayback of the next hotspot in the playlist (e.g., the tile 706 a)based on its order in the playlist and display of playlist information.The process may then return to step 625.

If playback of the current hotspot has not ended, then, at step 635, thepoint-of-interest controller 122 may determine whether it has received arequest for a different hotspot in the playlist. If so, then, at step640, the point-of-interest controller 122 may cause playback of theselected hotspot in the playlist and display of playlist information.The process may then return to step 625. Using the steps of 635-640, theuser may select any hotspot in the playlist for playback.

In some embodiments, the point-of-interest controller 122 may adjust thestart time and/or end time of a hotspot (e.g., point of interest,segment, etc.) in the playlist in a similar manner as discussed above.The point-of-interest controller 122 may also account for selections ofa next hotspot in the playlist in making such adjustments.

In some embodiments, parental control features may be implements for theplayback of hotspots. For instance, the requests may include a viewerID, which the point-of-interest controller 122 may use to determine ifthe viewer is permitted to view a hotspot based on the hotspot's rating.Any hotspots that the viewer is not permitted to view may be removedfrom the playlist 702. In some embodiments, subscriber-level controlfeatures may be implements for the playback of hotspots. For instance,the requests may include a viewer ID, which the point-of-interestcontroller 122 may use to determine if the viewer is permitted to view ahotspot based on the hotspot's subscriber-level. Any hotspots that theviewer is not permitted to view may be removed from the playlist 702. Insome embodiments, advertisements may be embedded in the playlist betweenhotspots. In some embodiments, users can share their playlists (e.g., afavorites playlist, a requested playlist, user-custom-order playlist,etc.) with other individuals.

The descriptions above are merely example embodiments of variousconcepts. They may be rearranged/divided/combined as desired, and one ormore components or steps may be added or removed without departing fromthe spirit of the present disclosure. The scope of this patent shouldonly be determined by the claims that follow.

1. A method comprising: transmitting, by a computing device, for aplurality of time periods, a stream comprising a content item;monitoring, by the computing device, a plurality of messages relating tothe content item posted to one or more social networking serviceproviders during the plurality of time periods by a plurality of viewersof the content item; determining that an aggregate number of a set ofmessages, of the plurality of messages, posted to the one or more socialnetworking service providers during a first time period, of theplurality of time periods, is greater than a threshold amount;determining a segment of the content item associated with the first timeperiod; and determining the segment to be a point of interest.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the determining the segment comprisesdetermining a start time of the segment and an end time of the segment,the method further comprising: determining one or more attributes of thepoint of interest; and storing, in a memory, for the point of interest,the one or more attributes of the point of interest, the start time ofthe segment, the end time of the segment, and one or more messages ofthe set of messages.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:subsequent to transmitting the stream comprising the content item,receiving a request for the content item from a requesting device;retrieving, from the memory, the one or more attributes of the point ofinterest, the start time of the segment, and the end time of thesegment; causing playback of the content item at the requesting device;and causing display of a playback timeline associated with the contentitem, the playback timeline comprising a user-selectable iconrepresenting the point of interest.
 4. The method of claim 3, furthercomprising: receiving a selection of the user-selectable iconrepresenting the point of interest; and causing playback of the segmentdetermined to be the point of interest.
 5. The method of claim 2,further comprising: subsequent to transmitting the stream comprising thecontent item, receiving a request for a playlist of points of interestin the content item from a requesting device; generating the playlist ofpoints of interest in the content item; and causing playback of thepoints of interest in the content item.
 6. The method of claim 5,further comprising: receiving a selection of a particular point ofinterest from the playlist of points of interest; and causing playbackof the particular point of interest.
 7. The method claim 1, furthercomprising: adjusting the segment of the content item based on viewerfeedback.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold amount isdifferent for different content items.
 9. The method of claim 1, whereinthe determining the segment of the content item associated with thefirst time period further comprises: determining a start time of thesegment based on an average time that the set of messages were postedduring the first time period and a preset delay.
 10. The method of claim1, further comprising: during playback of the segment, causing display,at a requesting device, of one or more messages relating to the segment.11. A method comprising: transmitting, by a computing device, a streamcomprising a content item; during transmission of the stream,determining one or more points of interest in the content item based ona plurality of messages relating to the content item posted to one ormore social networking service providers; generating a playlist ofpoints of interest in a plurality of content items comprising thecontent item; and causing playback of points of interest in the playlistof points of interest at a user device.
 12. The method of claim 11,further comprising: after playback of a first point of interest in theplaylist of points of interest, causing playback of a second point ofinterest in the playlist of points of interest at the user device. 13.The method of claim 11, further comprising: receiving a selection of afirst point of interest in the playlist of points of interest; andcausing playback of the first point of interest at the user device. 14.The method of claim 11, further comprising: adjusting a first point ofinterest in the playlist of points of interest based on viewer feedback.15. The method of claim 11, further comprising: during playback of afirst point of interest in the playlist of points of interest, causingdisplay of a playback timeline comprising a plurality of user-selectableicons representing different points of interest in a content itemcorresponding to the first point of interest.
 16. The method of claim15, further comprising: receiving a selection of a user-selectable iconof the plurality of user-selectable icons; and causing playback of apoint of interest associated with the user-selectable icon at the userdevice.
 17. A method comprising: transmitting, by a computing device, astream comprising a content item; during the transmitting, determiningpoints of interest in the content items based on messages relating tothe content item posted to one or more social networking serviceproviders; subsequent to the transmitting, causing playback of thecontent item at a user device; and causing display of a playbacktimeline associated with the content item, the playback timelinecomprising a plurality of user-selectable icons each representing adifferent point of interest, of the points of interest, in the contentitem.
 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising: receiving aselection of a user-selectable icon of the plurality of user-selectableicons; and causing playback of a point of interest associated with theuser-selectable icon at the user device.
 19. The method of claim 17,further comprising: during playback of a particular point of interest,causing display, at the user device, of one or more messages relating tothe content item and associated with the particular point of interest.20. The method of claim 17, further comprising: adjusting a point ofinterest, of the points of interest, based on viewer feedback.